THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF INDIA - III - Turks and Afghans
CHAPTER IX
He had rested for no longer than four days in the capital when he received news of a serious rebellion in Jaunpur, where the Hindu landholders assembled an army of 100,000 horse and foot and put to death Sher Khan, brother of Mubarak Khan Lohani, governor of Kara.
Mubarak himself escaped from Kara, but was seized by his Hindu boatmen at a ford near the present city of Allahabad and delivered to the raja of Phaphamau, who imprisoned him. Barbak Shah of Jaunpur was utterly unable to cope with this formidable insurrection, which seems to have been due to time intrigues of Husain Sharqi in Bihar, and withdrew to Daryabad, between Lucknow and Gonda, whence he joined Sikandar, who was marching on Jaunpur, at Dahnau on the Ganges.
The raja of Phaphamau, alarmed at Sikandar's approach, released Mubarak Khan and sent him to the royal camp, but the king's advance on Jaunpur was opposed by the rebel army, but he attacked it, defeated it with great slaughter, dispersed it, and took much plunder, and, continuing his march to Jaunpur, reinstated his brother and retired towards Oudh, where he proposed to enjoy the chase, but was almost immediately recalled by the news that Barbak was helpless before the rebels. The facts of the case are obscure, but it appears that Barbak had been coquetting with the rebels and also with Husain. Sikaudar dealt promptly with him by sending some of his principal nobles to Jaunpur to arrest him, and he was brought before the king and delivered into the custody of Haibat Khan and Umar Khan Shirvani.
From the neighborhood of Jaunpur Sikandar marched to Chunar, where a number of Husain's nobles were assembled. He defeated them but was not strong enough to attempt the siege of the fortress, and marched to Kuntit, on the Ganges, a dependency of Phaphamau, where Bhil, the raja of Phaphamau, made his obeisance, and was confirmed in the possession of Kuntit, as a fief. Sikandar marched on to Arail, opposite to Allahabad, and the raja, who accompanied him, became apprehensive for his personal safety and fled, leaving his camp and baggage in the king's hands. Sikandar, to reassure him, courteously sent his property after him. Arail was laid waste, and the army marched to Dalmau by way of Kara, and thence to Shamsabad, where Sikandar halted for six months, visited Sambhal, and returned to Shamsabad, destroying on the way the inhabitants of two villages who had been guilty either of rebellion or brigandage.
In October, 1494, after spending the rainy season at
Shamsabad he marched against Bhil of Phaphamau, who remained obdurate, laid
waste his territory, and defeated his son Narsingh in the field. The raja fled
in the direction of Sundha, but died on the way, and Sikandar, unable, owing
to scarcity of provisions, was obliged to push on to Jaunpur, where most of the
horses of his army died, from the hardships of the campaign, according to the
chroniclers, but in fact owing to the improvident habit of destroying both
crops and stores of grain in a hostile province. The rebellious landholders, at
whose head was Lakhmi Chand, a son of Raja Bhil, urged Husain Sharqi to attack
Sikandar, assuring him that nine-tenths of the latter's cavalry horses had
perished, and Husain marched from Bihar with all the forces which he could
assemble and 100 elephants. Sikandar, whose losses had been exaggerated and had
not proved to be irreparable, marched southward, crossed the Ganges by the ford
at Kuntit, placed a garrison in Chunar, and advanced to Benares, sending Khan
Khanan to conciliate Salibahan, another son of Raja Bhil. Thence he marched to attack
Husain, who was within thirty-six miles of the city, and on his way was joined
by Salibahan, whose adhesion had been secured by the promise of his father's
territory. He had repaired his losses, and he inflicted a crushing defeat on
Husain, and pursued him towards Patna with 100,000 horse. On learning that
Husain had continued his flight from Patna he marched with his whole army to
Bihar, and Husain, leaving Malik Kandu in the fortress of Bihar, fled to
Kahalgaon (Colgong). Sikandar, after detaching a force which drove Kandu from
Bihar, left some officers to complete the subjugation of that province and
marched into Tirhut, where he received the allegiance of the raja and, having
left Mubarak Khan Lohani to collect the tribute imposed upon him, returned to
Bihar.
This invasion of Bihar which, though held by the kings of Jaunpur in the day of their strength, had always been regarded as a province of Bengal, aroused the hostility of Alauddin Husain Shah, the active and warlike king of that country, who resented both the pursuit of his protégé and the violation of his frontiers. He hesitated to march in person against the king of Delhi, and sent his son Daniyal with an army to Barh, where he was met by a force under Mahmud Khan Lodi and Mubarak Khan Lohani. Neither party had anything to gain by proceeding to extremities and the treaty executed by both contained the usual stipulation, meaningless when boundaries fluctuate and are ill defined, that neither the king of Delhi nor the sultan of Bengal was to invade the dominions of his neighbour, but the latter's promise to abstain from harbouring Sikandar's enemies was an admission that he had erred in espousing Husain's cause.
Sikandar remained for some time in Bihar and his army suffered from famine, perhaps the result of climatic conditions, but more probably caused and certainly aggravated by the devastating campaign in which it had been engaged. Grain became so dear that one of the taxes levied under the Islamic law was remitted, and Sikandar marched to Saran, asserted his authority by removing some of the landholders from their fiefs and appointing nobles of his own clan in their place, and returned to Jaunpur, where he reorganised the administration of the distracted province and, having accomplished this task, demanded a daughter in marriage from Salibahan of Phaphamau. He met with a refusal and attacked Salibahan's stronghold, but failed to capture it and returned to Jaunpur, where he demanded from Mubarak Khan Lodi, to whom the collection of the revenue had been entrusted since the imprisonment of Barbak, an account of his stewardship. Mubarak Khan, who had been guilty of wholesale peculation, was much alarmed and sought the intercession of several influential courtiers with a view to avoiding an inquiry, but his anxiety betrayed his guilt, and he was ordered to pay into the treasury the large sums which he had embezzled.
Turbulence of the Nobles
Sunset on the Yamuna River-The Yamuna (sometimes called Jamuna or Jumna) is a major tributary river of the Ganges (Ganga) in northern India. With a total length of around 1,370 kilometers (851 mi), it is the largest tributary of the Ganges.Its source is at Yamunotri, in the Uttarakhand Himalaya, which is north of Haridwar in the Himalayan Mountains. It flows through the states of Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, before merging with the Ganges at Allahabad. The cities of Baghpat, Delhi, Noida, Mathura, Agra, Etawah, Kalpi, Hamirpur, Allahabad lie on its banks. The major tributaries of this river are the Tons, Chambal, Betwa, and Ken; the Tons being the largest. |
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